Billy Wilder in Hollywood (Paperback)

~ (Author), Billy Wilder (Author)
Key Phrases: matzoh brei, junior writer, Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"A double delight: a richly entertaining biography of both screenwriter-director Wilder and his milieu - Hollywood... a fascinating montage of a man whose talents and quirks, virtues and faults, are endlessly engrossing. Electrifying opinions of those with whom he has worked and the original casting choices for his films are often surprising: Mae West was his first choice for Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and Mary Pickford was his second! A first-rate book about a complicated, talented curmudgeon." - After Dark

About the Author

Maurice Zolotow

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Limelight Editions (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879100702
• ISBN-13: 978-0879100704
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #388,177 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look at Hollywood's Grand Old Man, December 7, 1999

By	STEVEN VICKERY (Vienna, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amidst the flurry of new books by and about Billy Wilder, don't neglect this forgotten gem originally published in the mid-70s. Author Zolotow has an 'Old Hollywood' perspective on Wilder's astonishingly productive career and acerbic personality--not to be missed.

5.0 out of 5 stars As charming and witty as Wilder himself, June 10, 2008

By	Crescent Dragonwagon (35 isolated acres in the Green Mountains of Vermont; formerly, for 33 years, the Arkansas Ozarks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I never read this book without laughing out loud in wonderment and delight. Unlike most other Wilder biographers, Zolotow (who died only a few years before Wilder) was a contemporary and spent years with the man, interviewing meticulously Wilder, Iz Diamond, and many of Wilder's actors and friends.His was the original, foundational research many later biographers drew oon. "Words, words, words?" Well, of course --- that is what books are made of! In the interest of full disclosure: I am Zolotow's daughter. I don't adore all my father's books, but this one truly delights me. The tapes of these interviews, BTW, are held by the University of Texas Special Collections department.